


AU - Voice of the Sea

by Aria6



Series: A Coyote's Stories [35]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 20:00:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3353462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria6/pseuds/Aria6
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Author's Note: Just a silly idea I had... there might be a second part, I haven't decided yet.</p>
    </blockquote>





	AU - Voice of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Just a silly idea I had... there might be a second part, I haven't decided yet.

Starrk yelped as he was lifted out of the sea.

_What in the world?!_ The powerful merfolk wiggled around, trying to figure out what was happening to him. He'd been taking a nap on the surface of the ocean, lazing about in the sun. Wait, had he ignored the vibrations of a ship…?

Yes, he most definitely had. The mer began to growl, highly annoyed with the humans who were staring at him in wide eyed shock. He began to bite at the nets. If they were going to just stare at him like idiots he would free himself by himself.

"Stop!" That commanding voice caught his attention and he stopped, staring at the man on the deck of the ship. "We'll let you out. Just don't ruin the nets, please." The man said, his voice coaxing. Starrk licked his lips before responding.

"Fine, I can wait." He was mildly uncomfortable as the net dug into his scales and skin, but it was nothing unmanageable. There were gasps and whispers as the humans realized he knew their tongue. Then the first man called out sharp commands and the others scurried to obey.

Starrk looked at the stranger thoughtfully, rather impressed by him. He had long chestnut hair and was wearing leather pants, leather boots and a jacket with an odd but beautiful insignia on the back. He had an interesting amount of body hair. Starrk found it fascinating. Merfolk tended to be hairless, except for the strands on their heads. Starrk was actually unusual in having a small beard. He nurtured it carefully, enjoying the individuality it gave him.

The nets were pulled off him and the mer caught himself before he would have fallen into the sea. Instead, he slid himself onto the desk of the ship. The men had to scramble aside as his lower body coiled aboard, for all the world like a giant snake. His lower body was actually very similar to an eel but Starrk folded his delicate fins tight to his body. That changed his method of locomotion to something similar to a naga.

"What are you humans doing here?" He asked, mildly curious. This was the middle of nowhere. The man with the grey eyes smiled at him charmingly and Starrk smiled back, enchanted.

"We're searching for a nest of pirates we believe is denning up here. Have you seen them, perhaps?" He asked easily and Starrk nodded, unsurprised. He'd already speculated with the other mer that the newcomers to their territory were likely lawbreakers.

"Yes." He said and there was a spate of whispers around him. "They've taken over the half-moon cove. We had to move our crèche grounds." That had been a minor nuisance, nothing more. "If you want, I'll show you the way. We prefer not to have humans here." They hadn't really tried anything but that was because the pirates were too alert and the cove was defensible. Otherwise, they would have sunk the ship. Starrk frowned as he thought of that. "The cove is quite defensible and there are reefs. The pirates marked them out."

"Can you show us how they marked them?" The man asked and Starrk nodded.

"That, I can do. Please, who are you?" He asked curiously and the man flashed him a smile.

"Kyoraku Shunsui. And you are?" He asked and the mer smiled back, carefully keeping his fangs hidden. His kind did not reveal their teeth when they smiled, unlike humans.

"Coyote Starrk. Let me…" He concentrated hard and made the shift. There were more gasps as his snake body vanished, two legs folding beneath him. "Unf." Starrk grunted as he struggled to rise. He managed it, wavering a bit on his feet. "Sorry. This takes me a bit to get used to." He hardly ever used legs. On the rare occasions he needed to take to the land, he usually folded his fins and slithered along like a snake. But the ship really didn't have enough room for him like that. Vaguely, he noticed that the man was looking him over with a stunned look on his face.

"Kami." He whispered and Starrk gave him a mildly confused look. Then he glanced over himself. He was completely naked, of course. His body was male, because that tended to be a better idea with humans in his experience. A naked woman was considered an invitation to sexual intercourse where a man was not, for some reason. So why was the captain staring at him in such an odd fashion? "D-Do you… would you like some clothes?" Starrk smiled at that question. He would actually prefer to remain unclothed but he could tell the humans would NOT prefer that.

"A robe would be fine. I will have to change back to help you pass the reefs, most likely." A robe would be easy to shed, unlike breeches. However, they didn't seem to have any robes on the ship. They were able to provide him with a night shift. "This will do." It would be the work of a moment to pull it off.

Soon he was at the odd wheel the humans used to steer the ship, pointing them in the correct direction. He knew when they were approaching the reefs and peered over the side, looking for the markers the pirates had left. They were subtle but easy for a mer to spot.

"More that way!" He gestured and the steersman followed his gesture. "Good. Hold the course." Starrk was familiar with directing ships. He was quite old and this was not his first time dealing with humans. Soon he abandoned the ship to get a better idea of where the reefs were. He could sense such things beneath the waves.

Eventually they got to the cove. There were shouts and cannons fired on the ship, before a blast of magical flame hit those defenses. Starrk swam away, staying out of the battle. He was not very violent to begin with and this sort of thing was beyond him.

It was very impressive. Starrk watched the explosions with wide eyes. Shunsui was casting some of the magic himself, too. Starrk really hadn't guessed he was skilled with that. It made the mer slap his fins in excitement, then wince as a flaming pirate ran into the water, screaming. War and battle were a very cruel thing. It had been so long he had nearly forgotten.

When the battle was over the pirates were soundly defeated. The few survivors were in ropes and chains, likely destined for execution or, just possibly, slavery. Starrk was uncertain if humans still practiced that. He knew it had been a bit controversial when he'd last walked among them. Soon the humans were celebrating their victory and Starrk swam to the shore, pushing himself onto the beach.

"Could I perhaps join you?" He asked diffidently. "It's been a very long time since I had alcohol." He looked longingly at the jugs of it they had found. Shunsui laughed, gesturing with one hand.

"Of course!" Soon Starrk had a mug of the brew, which was some kind of bitter grog. He coughed a bit but drank it anyway. He knew that most of the fun of drinking came from the way it made you feel, not the way it tasted.

That was certainly the case here. Starrk smiled as he lay by the fire, his coils idly curling around each other as he listened to the music. Shunsui had a beautiful voice, he noticed. And grey eyes kept going back to him. Even with the grog lighting a fire in his blood, Starrk had enough self-control to think about what might come next. He quickly decided he didn't care. It would hardly be the first time he'd bred outside of his race. The results were often interesting although there were more culls than normal, sadly.

"So tell me. Have you ever had sex with a human?" Shunsui asked him quite directly and Starrk chuckled softly at the bluntness of the question. He might have been offended but he could tell the other man was every bit as drunk as he was.

"Oh yes." The human actually looked a bit disappointed and Starrk decided to elaborate. "You see my size. My kind continue growing all our lives, although the rate slows as we mature. I am very large and very old." Really, his lower half resembled a vast serpent. Starrk had never met another mer as large as he. "Our color changes, too." He was a beautiful golden shade, dappled with warm browns and reds. That was the final color any mer could take. Shunsui looked interested, then.

"Oh, so you've associated with humans before?" He asked and Starrk nodded. The man flashed him a warm smile. "I've never had much to do with mer. Would you be interested in having sex with me?" That question made the mer smile. He actually liked that kind of question. Straight and to the point, no fencing about or dealing with human sensibilities.

"I would love to." He said sincerely before uncoiling. "Shall we find a place?" They were rather close to the fire. Shunsui laughed and nodded, standing up a touch unsteadily. They left the fire and Starrk smiled. He knew exactly how to do this.

Shunsui was a bit surprised, though, when a serpentine body suddenly coiled around him. He looked at the mer holding him with wide eyes.

"I, ah, thought we would have sex in your human form?" He asked and Starrk chuckled softly, pressing his upper body firmly against the man. Shunsui groaned and half-closed his eyes before exploring him with warm hands.

"But then you would have had sex with a man. There's nothing unusual in that." Starrk said, amused. Besides… "That is harder anyway." His male form would not create lubrication. A female one would but Shunsui clearly found him attractive in his more natural shape, which appeared masculine. It was not – mer sexes didn't work that way – but humans saw him that way. "Now…" Starrk gently shifted his lower body, reaching down to undo Shunsui's pants. He smiled as he saw the size of what was revealed.

"Ah Starrk…" Shunsui said as a warm hand encircled him. Starrk smiled before kissing him. "I don't know what to do to arouse you." The mer coiled around him had no obvious genitals. Starrk chuckled softly as the man smiled up at him.

"Believe me Shunsui, I find you arousing." His whole body was heating as the need to mate rose within him. "You are very desirable." Most of the young mer who came to mate with him were nothing like Shunsui. They were young and soft, almost feminine in appearance. That was natural – travelling and finding spawners to breed with was the second stage of a mer's life – but it made Shunsui's appearance interesting and exotic to him. "Mmm." The other man was reacting to his touch, his body aching for more attention. Starrk sifted his body with the ease of long practice, sliding his serpentine lower half until he was in exactly the right position…

"AH!" Shunsui arched with a surprised cry as he was abruptly encased in tight warmth. "Kami… what…?" He panted as Starrk groaned, his coils moving against skin as he slid his arms around Shunsui's body, locking them together in a passionate embrace.

"This is how we mate." He whispered in one ear, savoring the movements of the human in his coils. The friction within his body was delicious, inspiring. Starrk trembled, groaning softly as they moved together. It felt incredible…

The head of Shunsui's cock bumped something inside him and Starrk whimpered, his eyes glazing as the intense pleasure came over him. Very few of his mates had the length to stimulate him like that… he shuddered, sweat beading on his body as Shunsui kept prodding that place inside him. Starrk cried out, his insides undulating around the man under him as he began approaching his climax. It was not a long mating but that was fine. He was too excited to hold back.

And it seemed Shunsui felt the same way. His arms were firmly around Starrk's lower body, pressing them together even more fully as he tried to get in as deeply as he could. The slightly damp, scaly skin did not bother him a bit as he ground against the mer. Starrk shuddered as that length got even deeper into him than before. How incredibly good it felt…

The mer finally cried out, burying his face against Shunsui's neck as his inner walls squeezed down, stimulating the man in his coils. Shunsui's lust filled cry followed a moment later as his body jerked, then erupted inside him. Starrk gasped as he felt his body accepting the semen, sequestering it with all the others he had mated. His eggs would be fertilized by a mixture of different secretions, when they exited his body.

That was for a long time in the future, however. For now he just basked in the afterglow, humming softly in contentment as he gently played with Shunsui's hair. The man in his coils was almost incoherent, rapidly passing out in the aftermath of pleasure and alcohol. Starrk smiled, kissing him before settling in beside him.

This was extremely pleasant.

* * *

Over a year later.

Starrk looked at his crèche of young and felt extremely pleased.

Each mer had their own crèche, but in the same general area. They would work together to meet any threat to them all. However, within the crèche area they were all rivals. Each of them wanted the maximum number of young to survive to first mating stage.

Starrk had a great advantage in the competition to breed. As the largest and oldest, he had first pick of the younglings who swam by. That let him be choosy, taking only the largest and strongest. The first stagers wanted him so desperately because their instincts said he was an experienced spawner and his size told them he would make many good, fertile eggs. Smaller mer could not hold even a fraction of his clutch.

With direct hybrids, of course, there were many culls. Starrk had examined his eggs religiously and eaten any defective ones. He'd defended them as best he could, but predators had gotten quite a few of the remainder. Some of those had been dummy eggs, though. Those were eggs that were essentially decoys, full of a potent poison. The reason it was dangerous to raid a mer's nest, but some predators knew how to recognize the false eggs.

Now the eggs were ready to hatch and Starrk still had almost twenty young. That was very good. Most mer would be lucky to have five survive to this stage. Of course, it posed additional challenges for him. Soon he would have to defend almost twenty young fry. An exhausting prospect and Starrk knew, with a bit of sadness, that they would not all survive. There was no way he could keep so many young safe from predators and his fellow mer. Yet, he would do everything he could to keep the losses to a minimum.

Starrk watched, making soft calls as the little ones forced their way out of the soft eggs. Little arms broke through the transparent shells, tiny hands waving and fins flexing. To his distress, Starrk realized that he hadn't culled thoroughly enough. Two of the little fry were not freeing themselves well, which should have come easily to them. He called to them more, unwilling to give up on them just yet. One finally freed himself and Starrk saw that one of his fins was twisted, his body moving awkwardly. He briefly considered culling the little one but then the fry looked at him with soft grey eyes and cried for him. Starrk's heart melted at the sound and he sang to the little one, a wordless sound that made the fry swim to him. He caught the little one in his arms before regarding the other wrong one. It had not freed itself from the egg and the struggles were slackening as it suffocated. Sighing, Starrk bent over and stopped the wiggles with a single bite. A small gout of blood briefly stained the water, but only very briefly. Starrk pulled the body free of the egg and gently tossed it to the other fry. They were cannibalistic, when given the opportunity. While they would not kill other fry directly they would eat anything he gave them and they fought over it. The largest fry soon won and feasted. There was a tug on his arm fin and Starrk blinked before looking down. He smiled as he saw the tiny fry, still there and looking at him with wide grey eyes. Bending down he spat out a white substance, what he used to feed the young. The little one managed to eat a good portion of it before the others noticed and swarmed him with little creels. Starrk laughed as he began feeding the others.

Soon he would need to hunt and the little fry would need to hide. But for now, he would give them their first meal. They would need it to grow and thrive.

* * *

"You called me, grandmother?" Shunsui said with a smile, pulling off his straw hat. Now that he was home he had gone back to his usual garb. Sailors didn't wear such things but he enjoyed his pink kimono very much.

"Yes." His grandmother was regarding him very sternly. All the clan elders were there as well. Shunsui racked his mind for any reason and came up empty. Normally he at least knew why he was in trouble. "You recall the resonance test we recently ran on you?"

"Ah, yes. That." He said with less than no enthusiasm. It was meant to help determine who would make an appropriate life mate for him. Shunsui was not eager to give up his freedom to have sex with anyone he pleased, whenever he pleased. "Have you found my true resonant?" Although if they had, why were they looking at him so severely?

"No, and that would be impossible given that you have already given us an heir." His grandmother said and Shunsui stared at her blankly. "What woman have you impregnated?"

"I haven't!" He immediately protested, his mind reeling. What in hell were they accusing him of? "I haven't been with any women for the past year!" He liked women well enough but he also liked men, and given his need to stay unentangled, men were far more practical. "When was this child born?"

"There's an odd bit of uncertainty about that. Two or three years ago." One of his uncles put in and Shunsui blinked. That long?

"That's strange. Why wouldn't the woman have come for support?" He asked, more to himself than anything. If the child was born to a commoner he or she might not be eligible to be the heir but he or she would be entitled to support. And a noblewoman would be within her rights to demand an honorable marriage. No one just went their merry way when something like this happened. "That long ago… kami!" Who had he had sex with? "A few of the servant girls. But I know none of them have had children. Well, and a merman." That was meant to lighten the mood. He wasn't expecting his boring uncle to suddenly stare at him wide eyed.

"You had sex with a mer? Really?" He asked and Shunsui blinked at him, surprised. "That's the answer!"

"What?" His grandmother said before he could. "Shanzuki, what are you babbling about?" She demanded and his uncle, who was noted for his tendency to tell longwinded stories, was not loathe to explain.

"You all know I have a passion for magical creatures." They all did know, at length. Shunsui prepared himself to go to sleep with his eyes open. "First, merman is completely inaccurate. Mers all appear to be male, because they have no breasts. Oddly enough, the ones that fulfill a more male like role appear to be younger and softer in appearance. The spawners are both large and masculine in appearance." Shunsui blinked as he remembered how big Starrk had been. The mer had told him he was exceptionally large for one of his kind, in fact.

"But how can this have anything to do with the heir? Surely such things cannot breed with humans!" One of his other relatives said and Shunsui nodded. Really, it seemed absurd. His uncle laughed before explaining further.

"Oh, but they can! Legends say they are descended from the inhabitants of Atlantis." He said cheerfully and there was skepticism all through the room. "The magics that caused the isle to sink killed almost everyone, but a few absorbed the powers and became the mer. Because they're descended from humans they can most certainly breed with us. That's a documented fact. Although there are high rates of birth defects… Shunsui, how large was the mer you had sex with? And what was the color?" He asked and Shunsui swallowed before speaking.

"He was perhaps twice the length of this room." And it wasn't a small room. His uncle looked impressed. "His color was gold with brown and red dappling." His uncle looked truly shocked at that.

"My word! In my travels I never saw a mer that color, but I heard about it. He's ancient and that length… huge! They never stop growing, you know." He said cheerfully and Shunsui nodded. He was remembering now and even though he'd been half-drunk, he recalled Starrk saying that. "They spawn more eggs the bigger and older they are. Of course, there's a limit to how many they can defend. But kami! A usual sized mer will have anywhere from one to five eggs hatch. He would have at least double that, possibly triple or quadruple! Amazing!"

"Are you trying to say this mer may have created as many as twenty children with Shunsui?" His grandmother asked, holding onto her calm with admirable dignity. Shunsui was speechless at the thought. Twenty of them? What would they even look like?

"Oh, that's not at all likely." His uncle dismissed that but his reasoning was not terribly reassuring. "Mer will mate with any male that meets their standards. With his advantages, that mer would have high standards but it's very unlikely he mated just with Shunsui. I would assume that at least half his eggs belong to other mer. Possibly almost all of them… eggs made with humans do have quite a lot of defects and the mer eat them before they can hatch." He said and there was a gagging sound from someone. "But there must be at least one. Hmm, that would account for the uncertainty on the birthdate. The scrying was probably confused by the laying of the eggs and then the hatching of them."

"What are we to do about this?" One of his aunts wondered and Shunsui rubbed his forehead. That was the question.

"Such a creature cannot be the heir to the clan." His grandmother said firmly and there were nods around the table. "But we should at least see if this mer requires support – what?" His uncle was chuckling a bit.

"Nothing. It's just, mer are quite, hmm, individual when it comes to raising their fry. Other mer will sometimes attempt to eat the fry of their rivals!" He said and Shunsui swallowed, hard. He was just getting used to the fact that he apparently had half-human children. And now he was finding out they might be eaten alive? "And the younger mer never help. Did you know they essentially flip sexes after a certain number of matings?"

"I think you need to go with Shunsui to speak with this mer." His grandmother said with aplomb and Shunsui groaned to himself. Months with his uncle? Joy. "You can tell him all about it on the way." His uncle looked very, very happy with the prospect.

"Of course! I would love to." He said sincerely and Shunsui resigned himself.

This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Starrk was definitely not expecting the humans to find him again.

He absolutely wasn't expecting them to show any interest in his young. Why would they? True, they were hybrids, but so what? So when a small rowboat was led to his crèche by one of his young, he was surprised.

"Oi! Take care of them Coyote. They're scaring the other mer." Lilinette told him and he smiled at her, amused by her attitude. She had been one of his young, once upon a time. She had just made the transition to spawner and was much, much smaller than her 'mother'. Her body was colored bright blue and green, indicating her lack of age, along with her more feminine appearance. "They're interested in your fry." She looked over his spawn with envy. Starrk knew exactly why. He was down to seventeen younglings. Two had died but that was still very, very good.

"That so? I'll talk to them." He chirped to his little ones, calling them out to join him. He went to the rowboat, his clutch of offspring following him like a group of ducklings. The one with the twisted fin hung onto him, catching a ride. Starrk didn't mind although most mer would not have allowed it. Starrk knew he was pampering that little one, giving him extra attention. But he felt sorry for the tiny thing. He would never be able to compete for mating rights.

Saddened by the thought, Starrk breached the water, looking at the boat. He smiled as he saw a very familiar face.

"Shunsui!" He waved to the man and he waved back, although his smile was a bit pensive. "You've come to see your spawn?" That was unusual for mer but for humans he thought it was more normal. Shunsui choked a little at the cheerful inquiry as a strange human with spectacles bent over the edge of the boat, peering at his fry.

"My kami! How many of them are there?" He asked and Starrk answered proudly.

"Seventeen." He said and Shunsui looked a little sick. He really wondered why. This was great proof of his fertility and worth as a mate. "I think at least seven of them are yours." Warm brown hair and grey eyes were prominent in his fry. "I can't be entirely sure, though. Well, except about this one." He reached down to pluck off his clinging little fry, lifting the child up so they could see him. The tiny mer looked at the humans wide eyed before making a squeaky sound and trying to get back to his spawner. "Ah, sorry. They're very shy at this stage." He apologized before cuddling the little one in his arms. The shyness was protective and natural, considering that other mer would eat them. The fry's tail swished and the man with the glasses saw what was wrong.

"A twisted fin? Does he swim well with that?" He asked and Starrk shook his head sadly. "I'm surprised he's still alive. You're raising him to be a nest tender?"

"…Yes." He said, looking at the man in surprise. "You know a great deal about our ways." He was honestly shocked that a human would understand his intentions so readily. Nest tenders were young mer, often deliberately crippled by their spawner in some way and forced to remain on the nest forever. An effective tactic but very cruel, since the young mer was permanently trapped in the 'male' stage of reproduction yet could not mate. That made Starrk's eyes dim as he looked at his young. The little one was cuddled against him so trustingly. "I don't want that for him but it's all he has." This child could never survive on his own. Starrk knew that. "You just came here to see them?" That seemed odd to him. Shunsui spoke then, leaning down to look at the fry.

"We wanted to know if you needed any help. I honestly didn't know we could breed." He said and Starrk smiled a little. If he hadn't been so drunk, perhaps he would have pointed it out. Or perhaps not, looking after fry was on the spawners after all. Although… Starrk suddenly stiffened as a thought came to him.

"You want to help?" He asked and Shunsui nodded as the other man adjusted his glasses. "…Can you take him?" He offered them the twisted little fry. The spawn immediately tried to come back to him but this time Starrk did not allow it. "He would never be accepted. The other mer would look down on him and torment him. I hope it might be better if he is raised as a human?" Although he didn't know that. For all he knew the child was doomed to be alone. Although if that was the case, he would at least have his spawner. The thought made Starrk's heart twist. He knew what it was to be alone, intimately, although for him the cause was quite different.

"He will gradually lose his magical attributes, including his immortality." The man with the glasses warned and Starrk nodded. He knew that, intimately. He'd almost taken that road himself, once. He was very thankful that he hadn't.

"It still might be better for him. The need to mate when we are on our second stage… it is painful. He would never be able to relieve it, never make the transition to spawner." Starrk gently petted that warm chestnut hair. "Let's see if I can convince him to take his land form." The children could speak, a bit, and they were already learning the magic that allowed them to shift.

It took a great deal of coaxing, but he did manage it. The little legs that were revealed made Shunsui brighten.

"A club foot? He's old to wear a cast for it and it will probably hurt… we might even have to break it… but that can be fixed." He sounded very relieved. Starrk blinked at the thought. Fixed? He knew of no way to fix a twisted fin. "What is his name?"

"Isamu." Starrk smiled at his little spawn, gently encouraging him to go to his sire. It was hard going, the child kept wanting to cling to him. "I picked it because it means brave. He is always so brave, trying so hard to do what comes easily to the others." No one could fault the little fry for his determination. "Here." He finally managed to pull away the spawn and set him firmly in the boat. The child reached out for him, crying in the mer tongue. He only had a few words but he knew the one for spawner. Starrk crooned to him soothingly but the child just kept reaching, tears in his eyes. He sensed what was about to happen. "It will help when I go. Take good care of him, please?" He looked at Shunsui appealingly. The man nodded soberly.

"I will, I swear it." He said as he picked up the little fry. Starrk smiled at the sight before ducking beneath the waves, calling to the rest of his spawn. They followed readily, heading back to their crèche grounds.

Hopefully, little Isamu would have a good life.


End file.
